6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Adequate education and safety awareness should have ALREADY been in place. The obvious nature of canneries hiring help at sub-par wages, and issuing them technical responsibilities, is a direct reflection of their lack of follow thru at the Management Level. Eliminating Language Barriers and Certified Training should be Task Number One! If I was that Owner Operator of the Seiner that was damaged boat, I would be addressing immediate independent professional consultation, instead of following the lead of the Cannery Management reps. Sometimes the TOP-EGG in Management doesn't always make the most wisest of decisions. How many times do they get that Drug Test?

Felix was a great guy.He always had a smile for us whenever he did something for us.We communicated with each other just fine and he was competent in every peice of machinery I ever saw him use.I am saddened about this and so sorry for his family.We will miss him.Bill Macnab F/V Dream Maid

The accident was totally preventable. The incident happen at the time of one of the largest minus tides of the year. About 30 minutes before low tide that morning. The Captain of the vessel that the seine was being lower on to should have waited for the tide to come up. The crew of the tender vessel was just as much risk as the crane operator. As most people know the best time to load heavy objects on a vessel is high tide. But they where in a big rush to get out of town. That is where the comment: "Bear hunters gone wild" comes from. Open season on Bears in Togaik. OSHA is doing a investigation of the incident. So about 10 hours after the incident the lifted the seine off the vessel with a land base crane and took the seine out to a truck scale and weigh it and it weigh 4400 pounds.

Icicle Seafoods cares more about production than safety. I worked at Icicle several years ago and they had a very bad reputation in the Seward, AK area. I lot of people who live in the Seward area have complained about Icicle (drunk Icicle workers, bad management, no safety training on equipment, hiring uneducated workers with no skills, etc). The community of Seward tells their children to stay away for safety reasons. That is very sad!!! I'm surprised that Icicle is still doing business in Seward. Icicle Seafoods is considered by a lot of people in the fishing industry as the K-Mart of the fishing industry (The black sheep of the fishing industry).